Common Core’s ‘one size fits all’ approach flawed: Letters

Kudos to the Bellflower parents who are opposed to the Common Core program being promoted by the government.

My fervent hope is that the parents in Downey will be similarly moved to act. One of the best things about having separate curricula from school district to school district and state to state is that they are each free to select their own textbooks and teaching styles; thus they can learn to improve their own processes by observing each other’s successes and failures.

Like democracy, the systems we’ve enjoyed for many years may not be perfect, but they’re the best on the planet when prudently administered.

The concept of having a Common Core may seem laudable on paper, but it promotes a one-size-fits-all curriculum and removes the opportunity to compare and contrast what works and what doesn’t work.

The cultural anthropologists of future centuries will surely observe that any adoption of Common Core contributed markedly to the decline of American education and with it the fall of the American way of life.

I read with interest about the planned improvements to downtown’s Pine Avenue.

I guess none of the planners were around in the 1950s when the “scramble” crosswalks were first tried in the intersections from First Street to Fourth Street, or they would know what a disaster they were.

— Nadine Goldsmith, Lakewood

A view of U.S. wealth, poverty from ground up

Re “L.A. has become a poverty factory” (Doug McIntyre, April 5):

Doug McIntyre’s column about poverty was great. However, almost all human activities start with a philosophical (or a religious) belief.

For the past 50 years, the right wing in America has propagandized us with the concept that all wealth and all jobs filter down from the top earners, and if you allow a person to become filthy rich, he will give you a job.

However, in the real world, human history teaches that all wealth, all jobs, and life itself starts from the soil, the water, the air and the natural resources possessed by the continent you live on. Only then, wealth filters up to make the most talented and the most corrupt people more wealthy.

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That’s the truth. And it’s time to teach this to our children (or there will be no jobs in America itself).

— Aaron H. Shovers, Long Beach

Parade photo promotes elephant’s exploition

After 28 years of living in Long Beach and receiving the Press-Telegram, one photo is making me reach for the phone to cancel.

What on Earth possessed you to print a photo of that majestic elephant on his knees in the Hawaiian Gardens parade?

This peaceful creature, torn out of his environment and made to learn tricks to please us uber-arrogant humans, probably enduring incredible pain while learning them.

Add to that the crowds, cheering, the band — what a horrific life. And publishing this celebration of his tragic life gives screaming permission and sanctions the continuation of this horror.